MATCHMAKER (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) Read Free Page A

did not help his friskiness.
    “No. I have a three o’clock.” He was kind of bored, though. “What did you do last night after you went home?”
    “Nothing.” She said it quickly, and it made him wonder.
    “You must have done something.”
    A little color bloomed in her cheeks. She fascinated him. “Nothing at all. Got home and went to bed.”
    “Do you live alone?”
    “No.”
    “Roommates?” He pictured her and another similarly attractive young woman, sitting around in their panties, chatting. Damn, he needed to snap out of it.
    “No.”
    “A boyfriend?”
    “You sound surprised.”
    “Not at all. Did you meet him on one of these sites you’re steering me to?”
    “No. At an art class. He’s an artist.”
    Sterling sensed there was trouble in paradise. He decided not to pry. “I drank scotch and played video games.”
    “Ugh, seriously?”
    He laughed. “I thought you sociology-psychology types weren’t supposed to be judgmental.”
    “You have literally billions of dollars at your fingertips, and all you can think to do is play Xbox?”
    “PlayStation, actually.”
    “Ugh,” she said again.
    “I can’t be rescuing orphans and kittens at all hours of the night, can I? I have to find some time to relax. Besides, online gaming affords me a certain anonymity. No one knows who I am when I’m pwning n00bs.”
    “You’re ridiculous.”
    “I get called a lot of names—especially when I’m gaming. Ridiculous has never been one of them.”
    “Okay, she wants to meet you.”
    “Which one?”
    “Erika. The brunette.”
    “Friday night? Dinner?”
    “Don’t do dinner on a first date. In fact, I wouldn’t do Friday night for a first date. Go out for a beer, or for coffee, like on a Tuesday.”
    He must have made a face, because she continued. “If you don’t like her and you have dinner, you’re stuck sitting through an entire meal. If it’s a weeknight, you can say you have to work in the morning.”
    He laughed. He should have married Angela Calistrano when he turned twenty-one like Ben had wanted him to. Would have made life so much simpler.
    “Okay, meet her at Porter’s Tuesday night at seven.” He had a meeting Tuesday, but he could reschedule it. “Oh, now Layla wants to meet. Wednesday?”
    “Which one is Layla?”
    Cherise tried to think of a way around it, but it was easiest to just say, “The Asian one.”
    “Sure.”
    She told him the name of a different bar. “I’m making a schedule for you. I’ll give you the text of all these chat sessions since you can’t be bothered to talk to these women on your own.”
    “I’d think you’d want me to be bothered to pay you for your work.”
    “I didn’t think you’d sit there watching me.”
    “I’m not. We’re having a nice conversation.”
    “If this passes for nice conversation, I pity these women. Oh, Stephanie wants to meet. Monday or Thursday?”
    “Not Thursday.”
    “So Monday.”
    “That’s fine.”
    “What’s on Thursday?”
    “Rock climbing. The season’s almost over, and I’m not missing any good days.”
    “What’s it like?”
    “You’ve never been?”
    “I’m a city kid.”
    “Johannesburg?” She nodded. “How’s your upper body strength?”
    “Subpar.”
    “Then climbing would be hard for you. But, with practice, you’d have a great body for it.”
    “What’s that mean?” She crossed her arms and drew away from him.
    “You’re long and mostly lean. I bet you have a good reach. You’re not carrying extra weight. Would you like to try it?”
    “I’d try it, but now you’ve got me thinking I’m going to suck.”
    “You will, at first. Everyone does until you develop your muscles. I sucked for a long time. We could get you on some sixes, and I bet you wouldn’t have a problem getting to the top.”
    “Sixes?”
    “The route rating system is all based around fives. Five-five is the easiest, five-fourteen is the hardest. A five-six has nice, easy holds, lots of good places